After the spending deal last week that reopened the federal government through early 2014, Republicans tried to ease concerns Sunday about the possibility of another shutdown in just a few months.
Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the chamber’s top Republican who helped broker the agreement, said that although he disliked the new health care law — the sticking point in the latest impasse — there was no use in Republicans’ trying to roll it back while Democrats control the Senate and the presidency.
“There will not be another government shutdown,” he said on the CBS program “Face the Nation.” “You can count on that.”
But Senator Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican who was criticized by many in his own party for prolonging the gridlock, called last week’s budget agreement “terrible” and did not rule out another shutdown.
“I would do anything, and I will continue to do anything I can to stop the train wreck that is Obamacare,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.”
Republicans backed away from their push to defund President Obama’s health care law on Wednesday, agreeing to a deal to reopen and finance the government through Jan. 15 and allow the government to continue borrowing money through Feb. 7.
When the Tea Party was first formed and began holding marches with their lies, misrepresentation of the facts and misspelled words, many in the established Republican party kept their mouth shut and in some cases, took the sides of the Teaparty. They felt the Tea Partiers were only fighting the Democrats and in that case, all was well. Well that then. Today, these same members of the established Republican party are facing primary challenges from the Tea Party.
In Kentucky, Mitch McConnell, the party’s Senate leader, is fending off a charismatic and wealthy conservative challenger. In South Carolina, Lindsey Graham, one of the Senate’s most reliably conservative voices on foreign policy, is being painted by primary opponents as a veritable clone of President Obama.
In Tennessee, Tea Party activists have vowed to take out Lamar Alexander, the veteran senator, former cabinet officer and two-time presidential candidate. “Senator Alexander has never been a true conservative,” said Ben Cunningham, president of the Nashville Tea Party. “His support for the amnesty bill has caused great problems for us,” he said, referring to the Senate immigration bill. “He is at best a moderate.”
Tea Party candidates have also emerged in races against Democratic incumbents in Alaska — Joe Miller, who beat Senator Lisa Murkowski in her last primary, has resurfaced — Colorado, Louisiana and North Dakota, and for open seats in Georgia, Iowa and South Dakota. Democrats hope they can benefit from a divided Republican electorate.
The Republican incumbents and party officials say they have learned from the hard lessons of the past when Tea Party candidates from the right were ignored or dismissed, only to prevail in primaries and lose in general elections. They have plans to avoid becoming the next Richard G. Lugar or Robert Bennett, two senior senators who were stunned by losses before the general election.
Moments after Republicans succeeded in thwarting the will of 90% of Americans by defeating background checks, Republican leader Mitch McConnell and his team couldn’t contain themselves. As Democratic leader Harry Reid and fellow Democrats consoled members of Newtown families that lost a loved one in Sandy Hook, this caption and picture appeared on McConnell’s Facebook page.
We love the memes you send us! Keep them coming!
Disgusting behavior indeed. A United States Senator is mocking the wishes of a majority of Americans, celebrating the defeat of a bill 90% of us wanted. And some of these Americans used McConnell’s Facebook post to express their displeasure in the Republican’s taste.
Below are some of the first responses to McConnell’s sick humor.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s campaign team on Tuesday asked the FBI and U.S. attorney to investigate whether its headquarters was bugged after a secretly taped recording was posted by Mother Jones.
On the tape, McConnell’s aides discuss attacking actress-activist Ashley Judd for her struggles with depression and views on several topics, including religion.
Judd, who was considering a Senate bid in Kentucky, said in late March that she would not run for the Democratic nomination in 2014 to take on McConnell.
“We’ve always said the left would stop at nothing to attack Sen. McConnell, but Watergate-style tactics to bug campaign headquarters are above and beyond,” said Jesse Benton, McConnell’s campaign manager. “Obviously a recording device of some kind was placed in Sen. McConnell’s office without consent. By whom and how that was accomplished presumably will be the subject of a criminal investigation.”
The magazine said it obtained the recording of a Feb. 2 meeting last week from a source who requested anonymity.
“She’s clearly, this sounds extreme, but she is emotionally unbalanced,” a McConnell aide is heard saying on the tape. “I mean it’s been documented. Jesse can go in chapter and verse from her autobiography about, you know, she’s suffered some suicidal tendencies. She was hospitalized for 42 days when she had a mental breakdown in the 90s.”
McConnell, the top Republican in the Senate, is heard on the tape at the beginning of the meeting, in which a wide variety of opposition research on Judd is discussed. USA TODAY has not independently verified the tape.
Among other things, McConnell’s aides are heard talking about Judd’s support for President Obama, her opposition to coal mining, support for an energy policy known as “cap and trade,” and her views on abortion and religion. One McConnell aide says Judd is critical of “traditional Christianity,” according to the tape and transcript posted by the liberal magazine.
“This is yet another example of the politics of personal destruction that embody Mitch McConnell and are pervasive in Washington, D.C.,” Judd’s spokeswoman, Cara Tripicchio, said in a statement.
“We expected nothing less from Mitch McConnell and his camp than to take a personal struggle such as depression, which many Americans cope with on a daily basis, and turn it into a laughing matter,” the Judd statement continued. “Every day it becomes clearer how much we need change in Washington from this kind of rhetoric and actions.”
Some of the research on Judd came from her 2011 memoir, All That is Bitter and Sweet, in which she wrote about her struggle with depression and how she had contemplated suicide in sixth grade. In 2006, she entered a 42-day treatment program at a rehab facility in Texas.
“I would have died without it,” Judd told People magazine in 2011.
By early afternoon Tuesday, McConnell’s team turned the leaked tape into a fundraising opportunity. They posted a message on their website that read in part: “Breaking: Liberals wiretap McConnell office.
(AP) – Actress and Kentucky native Ashley Judd made a rare public reference to her possible run for the seat held by Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
WXIX-TV says Judd gave the keynote speech Friday at the American Counseling Association’s 2013 conference in Cincinnati.
In speaking about her personal experience with depression, she said when she started in counseling she didn’t like to be criticized. She added that was ironic since she was, in her words, “about to get $40 million worth of it.”
Judd also said her mother, Naomi Judd, can’t wait to turn her garage into a campaign headquarters.
Judd is a former Kentucky resident now living outside of Nashville, Tenn.
She has been largely mum about her intentions. Defeating McConnell would be the Democrats’ biggest prize of the 2014 election.
So ObamaCare was passed by the United States Senate, it was approved by the House of Representatives, it was signed into law by the President of The United States, and the case was adjudicated by The United States Supreme Court. All three branches of government approved of the law.
ObamaCare is now being implemented throughout the land. But Republicans in Congress are still wagering their fruitless battle lying to their followers by promising to repeal it.
Earlier in the week, Paul Ryan wrote a budget calling for the repeal of ObamaCare. His budget will be expected to perform a mystifying leap of faith, because while it calls for the repeal of ObamaCare, Ryan’s budget can only be balanced using funds that ObamaCare is saving the nation.
And now Mitch McConnell, using his CPAC speech, McConnell is promising to repeal ObamaCare.
Md. — Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky is vowing to repeal President Barack Obama’s sweeping health care law.
McConnell spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference next to a tower of 20,000 pages of health care rules and regulations. He calls it a “monument to liberalism” and says Republicans will not back down from the fight.
McConnell faces re-election next year. He says Republicans need to rebound from election losses last year and, quote, “punch back.” He says Democrats haven’t had a new idea, quote, “since the days of the Studebaker.”
He compares the possibility of Democrats nominating Hillary Rodham Clinton or Joe Biden for president in 2016 to, quote, a “rerun of ‘The Golden Girls.'”
After 34 tries at Repeal, Republican voters are still being fooled into thinking that the 35th time will be the charm. And the sad part of all this is, these unfortunate voters who apparently depend only on Fox for news, continue believing the empty rhetoric from their leaders.
Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, you better watch out! Your nine political lives are coming to an end! And I can make that assessment based on the news coming out from the Ashley Judd for Senate camp, that the popular, lovable entertainer will be running against McConnell for the 2014 midterms election.
Ashley Judd
According to reports from The Huffington Post, Judd, the 44-year-old actress and social activist, has told key advisers and political figures that she is planning to announce her candidacy for U.S. Senate here this spring.
Judd told one close ally that she plans to announce her run for the Democratic nomination for the 2014 race “around Derby” — meaning in early May when the Kentucky Derby brings national attention to Louisville and the Bluegrass State.
Reached for comment by email Saturday, Judd offered a not-quite-ironclad denial to The Huffington Post. “I am not sure who is saying this stuff, but it is not I! I’d prefer as a fan of your journalism that you stay accurate and credible. We told everyone who called us yesterday these stories are fabrications.”
But she declined to specify which “stories,” did not say what wasn’t “accurate,” and did not respond when asked directly whether she had, in fact, decided to run or chosen a time to declare her intentions.
“I know she knows she has to declare soon,” said one source, a highly placed elected official who declined to be identified because he was discussing private plans.
“She could always change her mind,” he added. “I changed my mind twice before I finally declared. But as of now it is a done deal.” She has discussed her plans, sources say, with former Gov. Wendell H. Ford, the 88-year-old dean of Kentucky Democrats, among others.
So yes, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reidcaved on filibuster reform, despite telling various reporters that changing the filibuster has to happen. In an interview with Rachel Maddow back in October 2010, Reid said, “this has to change. It’s wrong what they’re doing, cause it’s has never happened before. The Republicans, just this time, have abused the system. And it’s gonna have to change. We’re gonna have to look at ways to change that, because there should not be a 60 vote threshold in the Senate.”
Then on Thursday, when he had a chance to change the filibuster, Reid went back on his “no-60-votes-threshold” claim and for some strange reason, he basically left the filibuster in place.
But he has a reason…
Ezra Klein summed it up best when he said, “Reid and McConnell have come to a deal on filibuster reform. The deal is this: The filibuster will not be reformed.”
Well, the word on the street is that a “deal” was reached on Filibuster reform. This “deal” was negotiated between Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid and Republican Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell.
According to reports, this new “deal” will make some changes to how filibusters are done. These changes are:
Make it harder to filibuster the “motion to proceed,” which allows the Senate to start debate on a piece of legislation. Senators can still filibuster the actual legislation.
Eliminate some of the procedural hurdles to send legislation to a conference with the U.S. House to resolve differences between competing bills.
Make it easier to confirm certain judicial nominations. It does not apply to Cabinet positions, circuit court nominations or Supreme Court nominations.
Notice any changes yet? No? Well you’re not alone. Anyone looking at this “deal” is left wondering exactly what did Harry Reid get in return. He basically allowed Mitch McConnell and the Republicans to continue blocking bills just because they feel like it. And what did Reid and the Democrats get in this “deal?”As far as I could see, nothing.
Republicans are ecstatic though! Said Republican Senator Lamar Alexander, “We all want the Senate to function. I’m optimistic about it.”
Yes Lamar, you should be. You basically have things just the way they were before this so-called “deal” was reached.
You hear this all the time… Democrats have no backbone. Well based on what happened with the filibuster, you’d have to agree that at least in this case, that saying is correct.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) may have made United States senate history today when he beat his own legislative baloney, blocking a straight up-or-down vote on a proposal that he, himself, offered for a vote Thursday morning. The bill, which would have taken the debt ceiling gun away from the head of the U.S. economy by requiring a two-thirds majority to override a presidential increase to the debt ceiling, was McConnell’s idea, but when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid agreed with McConnell’s request for a vote on the bill Thursday afternoon, McConnell objected.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) wanted to prove on Thursday that Democrats don’t have the votes to weaken Congress’ authority on the debt limit. Instead they called his bluff, and he ended up filibustering his own bill.
The legislation, modeled on a proposal McConnell offered last year as a “last-choice option” to avert a U.S. debt default, would permit the president to unilaterally lift the debt ceiling unless Congress mustered a two-thirds majority to stop him.
McConnell brought up the legislation Thursday morning. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) initially objected, seemingly proving the Republican leader’s point that it cannot pass the Senate. But then Reid ran it by his members and, in the afternoon, agreed to hold that same vote. This time it was McConnell who objected.
“The Republican leader objects to his own idea,” Reid declared on the floor. “So I guess we have a filibuster of his own bill.”
Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell appeared in friendly territory on Fox News Sunday and explained the Republican Insurance System to the American people. Their system boils down to – You don’t have health insurance? Tough! That is not the issue.
No kidding. McConnell was asked by Fox host Chris Wallace to explain what Republicans are planning to do with the 30 million uninsured Americans if they succeed in repealing President Obama’s health care law. After failing to answer the questions on different occasions, McConnell settled on saying that providing insurance to these people was not the issue.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Sunday said House Speaker John Boehner was right to focus attention on a possible hike in the nation’s debt ceiling, saying it was a “perfect time” to address the nation’s fiscal health, but placing the burden for moving forward with President Obama.
“At some point here, this president needs to become the adult, because the Speaker and I have been the adults in the room, arguing that we need to do something about the nation’s most serious long-term problem,” said McConnell on CBS’s Face the Nation.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) restarted the debate over a possible debt-ceiling hike last week when he called for dollar-for-dollar cuts in exchange for any raise in the limit. Boehner said he feared that without early negotiations on a long-term fiscal plan, lawmakers post-election would only have a few weeks to avoid what Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has called a “fiscal cliff” with looming cuts to spending and expiring Bush-era tax rates.
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